This invention is related in general to networks and more specifically relates to systems and methods for facilitating persistent communications between network entities, such as clients and authentication servers.
For the purposes of the present discussion, persistent communications may be communications that are consistently maintained so that communications occur between intended entities.
Systems and methods for ensuring persistent communications are employed in various demanding applications including fast reauthentication, Web browsing, and so on. Such applications often demand efficient mechanisms for ensuring that messages between a client and a server are appropriately sent between the client and the server. Systems and methods for ensuring persistent communications are particularly important in fast-reauthentication applications in wireless networks, such as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), WiFi (e.g. IEEE 802.11 networks), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), cellular, and Public Wireless Local Area Networks (PWLANs), where a client must access the original authentication server for fast reauthentication.
An exemplary wireless network includes a wireless client coupled to multiple Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) servers via one or more Server Load Balancers (SLBs) that front the AAA servers. The wireless client, also called a mobile station, may be a multimode phone, a laptop equipped with a wireless card, or other client.
When the client connects to the network, the client provides an identification number, such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number to an AAA server. The AAA server then runs an algorithm to facilitate authenticating the client based on the identification number. The AAA server may reference a Home Location Register (HLR) to access client authentication information, which may include information pertaining to what network services a given client may access. If the client momentarily loses contact with the network, reauthentication is performed.
Certain networks employ fast reauthentication. In fast reauthentication, the wireless client may be given reauthentication information by the AAA server that originally authenticated the wireless client. To request reauthentication, the wireless client incorporates the reauthentication information in a reauthentication request sent to the original AAA server. Unfortunately, in applications employing plural AAA servers that are fronted by one or more SLBs, the reauthentication information forwarded by the client may not be routed to the correct AAA server.
To facilitate persistent communications, also called stickiness, between a client and a server, a so-called sticky object pertaining to a given communication between a client and a server may be employed. The sticky object is inserted in a sticky database that is selectively accessed by an intervening SLB to determine how to route a given message from a client or corresponding server. Unfortunately, accessing a sticky database to ensure persistent communications may be undesirably time consuming and network-resource intensive. Furthermore, conventional use of sticky objects is often unsuitable in applications, such as fast reauthentication applications, where an intervening SLB may lack information pertaining to how certain reauthentication information sent by a client correlates with information in a sticky database. For example, an SLB may associate initial client authentication information with a sticky object. Unfortunately, fast reauthentication requests, which include fast reauthentication information, typically lack the initial client authentication information needed to employ the sticky object to accurately route reauthentication requests.